The Bible

 

Genesis 1:23

Study

       

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #862

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

862. That 'it happened at the end of forty days' means the duration of the former state, and the beginning of the one that followed, is clear from the meaning of 'forty', see 730, where, the subject being temptation, the phrase 'forty days and forty nights' was used, which meant the duration of temptation. Here, since the subject is the state following temptation, 'forty days' is mentioned but not forty nights. The reason is that charity now starts to appear, which in the Word is compared to the day and is called the day. Faith however which precedes but has not yet been so joined to charity is compared to the night and is called the night, as in Genesis 1:16, and elsewhere in the Word. Faith is also called 'the night' in the Word because it receives its light from charity, just as the moon does from the sun. Faith is therefore also compared to the moon and is called the moon; and love or charity is compared to the sun and is called the sun. 'Forty days', or the duration of time meant by them, refers both to the things that precede and to those that follow; hence the statement 'at the end of forty days', which accordingly means both the duration of the previous state, and the beginning of the one being described now. This then begins the description of the second state following temptation of the member of this Church.

  
/ 10837  
  

Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2937

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

2937. 'For the full price' means redemption by means of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'silver' as truth, dealt with in 1551, and from the meaning of 'let him give it to me in - that is, for - silver', as buying, and in the spiritual sense as redeeming. For spiritual people are called 'those bought with silver', see 2048; that is, they are redeemed by means of truth. The reason for this is that they are being regenerated, that is to say, are being initiated into good, by means of the truth of faith. For the spiritual man, unlike the celestial, does not have any perception of good. Instead he knows through truth, and after that acknowledges from truth, that which is good. And when he acknowledges and believes, truth to him becomes good and he experiences it as good whose essential nature is the same as the truth with him. This is why spiritual people are called those redeemed by means of truth. Yet the essential nature of the good is not born and produced from truth, but from the influx of good into truth of that nature.

  
/ 10837  
  

Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.